A Matter of Faith

It was late on Saturday night, and Nancy was planning to attend church the following morning.  Too sleepy to set her alarm clock, she asked the angels to awaken her in time for church. (Angels can be our personal alarm clocks, if we ask.)  “I am learning to trust, these days,” she says, “so I am asking for help with things small and large.”

At precisely 7:30 a.m., Nancy sleepily opened her eyes---and realized that she was staring right into the face of an angel.  “Of course I was about to drop off, thinking I was dreaming, when I opened my eyes again---and she was still there!”  The angel smiled as if to say, “This is real!” and then faded away.   A few minutes later, in the shower, Nancy remembered her sleepy request for an angel to wake her.  “So in the shower I am reaffirming to myself---they listen!  They listen!  This is so wonderful!  They hear!” she said.

A little while later, Nancy got in her car, put the key in the ignition---and heard nothing.  She opened the hood to discover that her battery had been stolen.  Obviously she was not going to make it to church.  “This is not the first time my car has been vandalized, and the last two time it wrecked my day,” Nancy says.  But today she remembered the angels and realized the smile was still on her face.  She was calm too.  “I thought---It is only a battery and I think I know who stole it, and I began to send kind thoughts and prayers and light to this person.   Not because stealing is okay, but I knew that the possible thief has serious emotional problems, and stealing—for him---is a cry for help.”

Still completely tranquil, Nancy walked back to her place, wearing that slight smile on her face.  She phoned a friend she hadn’t talked to in awhile, hoping he might suggest what she should do about the battery.  “But this friend had been wanting to talk to me about some spiritual experiences and some religious information I needed.  We talked for an hour.”  What an odd time for a discussion of this type.  But when else might the two of them have been able to converse?  Afterwards Nancy (still calm) called the police and reported the stolen battery.

Odd, she was thinking, but the whole day was like being "in church. Not in a building, but in a place of relevance.”  Nancy’s friend, who ultimately found her a free battery and installed it despite the busyness of his own day, commented that “none of us can save the world, but we can each do our own little bit to help….” and the simple observation felt so profound to Nancy that she wondered if the angels had put those words in his mind.

Nancy believes that by letting go of any anger that might have surrounded her, she not only wasn’t personally harmed by this situation, but had a day filled with “the best sermon anyone ever thought of preaching outside a church wall.”   Not only do angels guide us through life’s minor snares, she believes, they are always there to help us deepen our faith and learn to walk the way of the Kingdom. 

(C) 2006  Joan Wester Anderson  www.joanwanderson.com

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